Stories and Solutions

The Norwegian Research Council asked GRID-Arendal

to contribute its expertise to the development of EU white

papers on polar policy – EUPolar Net – including developing

a section on stakeholder needs. GRID-Arendal will become

further engaged with the EU Polar Net in 2016.

The University of the Arctic (UArctic) is a cooperative network of universities, colleges, research institutes and other organizations concerned with education and research in and about the North. The university’s president, Lars Kullerud, is hosted at the GRID-Arendal office and directs a leadership team of six vice presidents based in Alaska, Newfoundland, Finland and Russia. In 2015, UArctic attracted over 170 members to its annual meeting held in Ulan-Ude, Buryatia, Russia. In all, the network provides direct access to over 350 Arctic experts – a remarkable resource.

The UArctic president gave the keynote speech at

the founding meeting of the Himalayan University

Consortium Summit in October in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The consortium is an international network similar to

UArctic consisting of higher education institutions in

the Himalayan region. It has asked for support to help

build its organisation. This is a direct contribution to the

GRID-Arendal HICAP project referred to earlier.

Reports and Publications Himalayan Climate and Water Atlas: Impact of Climate Change on Water Resources in Five of Asia’s Major River Basin s. Mountain Adaptation Outlooks Series – Outlook on climate change adaptation in five regions: East Africa, South Caucasus, Central Asia, Balkans/Dinaric Arc, and the Tropical Andes.

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region

Man and

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2011

JANVIER

JANUARY

Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world (8,848 m), is located

in Sagarmatha National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the

Hindu Kush-Himalayas.

The Himalayan glaciers and ice caps are considered a “water

tower” for the 1.3 billion people downstream in Asia who use it for

agriculture, drinking and power production.

The Sagarmatha National Park houses one of the densely glaciated

basins of Nepal, the Dudh Koshi Basin. The glaciers in the valley are

retreating and the total area covered by glaciers in the Dudh Koshi

Basin declined by 143 km

, which is equivalent to 27% area loss

between 1980 and 2010.

Melting glaciers cause the rapid expansion of glacial lakes which are

surrounded by banks of unstable ice and loose debris. Glacial Lake

Outburst Floods (GLOFs) constitute serious risks for the population,

infrastructure and environmental resources in the Hindu-Kush

Himalayas. These occur when the lake bursts and water cascades

down mountain valleys.

©JAXA

©ParibeshPradhan/ICIMOD

©DorotheaStumm/ICIMOD

©EthanWelty